Mince Pies

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Nothing tastes like Christmas quite like traditional mince pies. The lightly sweetened buttery pastry encasing spicy, citrusy vine fruits provide the perfect texture and flavour combination. Serve with a cup of tea or warm with cream or ice cream for dessert. They also box up well – why not make a batch for a friend this Christmas? Homemade mince pies not only taste better than shop bought, you will have the added benefit of your house smelling divine, as they cook.

Where is this recipe from?

There are thousands of mince pie recipes, all very similar. This one is a slightly adjusted Paul Hollywood recipe, from the BBC Good Food Website. The first time I made it I wanted to halve the ingredients; I needed to make a few tiny adjustments to make it work, but other than that, it is pretty much identical.

This is a very reliable recipe. I am not a great pastry maker but this fabulous recipe works every time – the pastry is consistently short, sweet and buttery, and it perfectly complements the mincemeat which is enhanced with fresh orange, lemon and apple.

Don’t handle the pastry too much.

When working with pastry it is important that you do not knead it and  you roll it out as little as possible. Whilst you can top your pies with a circle of pastry, I like to top mine with small stars, hearts and holly leaves, which I cut out from scraps of pastry left in between the round bases I first cut out for the bases. This not only looks pretty but it reduces how many times you need re-roll the pastry dramatically.

Can I use shop bought mincemeat?

You can use shop bought or homemade mincemeat. This recipe adds additional ingredients to enhance and lighten whichever you choose to use.

What size pan should I use?

This is up to you. They can be made in either a muffin size pan or smaller patty tins, more typical of the home made mince pies your grandmother made. These are my favourite – they are easier, quicker and provide a smaller bite whilst there is so much other food around at Christmas. Heck, you can always eat more than one!

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How to make Mince Pies

Collect all the ingredients together:

Pastry –

• plain/all-purpose flour
• caster sugar
• fine salt
• fridge cold unsalted butter, cubed
• fridge cold egg, beaten

Mincemeat –

• lemon zest
• orange zest
• orange slices, chopped
• apple, peeled cored and grated
• mincemeat, homemade or shop bought

Plus –

• egg wash or milk for glazing
• caster sugar
• icing sugar

How to make these delicious pies:

1. Make the pastry: weigh the flour, sugar and salt into the food processor and pulse to mix. Alternatively weigh it into a mixing bowl and stir to mix.
2. Either, using the pulse function on your food processor or using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.
3. With the processor running, slowly add the very cold beaten egg until the mixture just comes together. Or add the beaten egg gradually using a knife to incorporate it into the flour mixture. Stop when it nearly all comes together.
4. Take out of the food processor or mixing bowl and push (rather than knead) very gently with your hands to bring the dough together. Kneading stretches the gluten in the flour and will make your pastry tough, so handle it as little possible.
5. Press into 2 circles, one a little larger than the other, and wrap each in clingfilm. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
6. Prepare the mincemeat: weigh the mincemeat into a mixing bowl. Using a fine grater, zest the lemon and the orange directly onto the mincemeat.
7. Now, remove the orange segments from the oranges. To do this, use a sharp knife to slice the base from the orange. Place the flat base on a chopping board, steady the top of the orange with one hand and using the other, use firm downward strokes, to slice the skin and pith from the orange. Remove any remaining white pith and then remove the top of the orange.
8. Hold the orange in one hand over the mixing bowl, to collect the juices, and very carefully cut between the membranes to remove the segments of orange. Chop the slices into small cubes.
9. Peel, core and grate the apple and add to the mincemeat with the orange. Mix well.
10. Make the mince pies: you will need either 2 x 12 hole muffin tins or 2 x 12 hole small patty tins. This quantity should make around 20 larger mince pies or 40 smaller ones. Lightly grease the tins with butter.
11. Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7 (fan 200°C) and put two metal baking trays in the oven to heat up. This helps to cook the base of the mince pies. The trays need to be large enough for the muffin tins to sit on them whilst the pies cook.
12. Lightly dust your work surface with flour and place the larger pastry circle in the centre. Lightly flour the pastry and the rolling pin. Use the rolling pin to roll forwards and backwards. ¼ turn the pastry and repeat until the pastry is 3mm thick.
13. Larger muffin size mince pies:
    • use a 10cm fluted pasty cutter to cut out as many bases as you can, cutting them as close to each other as possible. Gently fit into the holes of the larger tin and prick the base of each 2 to 3 times with a fork. Push the remaining pastry together, re-roll and cut out more bases until the pastry is used up.
    • fill each base with 1½ tablespoons mincemeat per muffin.
    • roll out the remaining pastry, as above and cut out sufficient pastry tops using a 7cm round fluted cutter.
    • lightly brush the edges of the pastry base with milk or egg wash and top with the smaller circles. Press lightly to secure and, using a sharp knife, make a couple of small holes in the top of each mince pie.
    • brush with milk or egg wash and sprinkle with caster sugar.
    • place on the hot baking trays in the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 (fan 180°C).
    • cook for 15 – 20 minutes, until lightly golden brown.
    • leave to cool in the tin and lightly dust with some icing sugar.
14. Smaller traditional mince pies:
    • use a 7½cm fluted pasty cutter to cut out as many circular bases as you can, cutting them as close to each other as possible. Gently fit into the holes of the smaller tin and prick the base of each 2 – 3 times with a fork.
    • Take the smaller cutters – I use a star shape, holly leaf and small hearts – and cut out as many as possible from the leftover pastry. Push the remaining pastry together, re-roll and cut out more bases and tops until the pastry is used up.
    • fill each base with 2 teaspoons mincemeat per muffin.
    • top with 1, 2 or 3 shapes, depending on size. There is no need to cover all the mincemeat – it is good to have some gaps.
    • brush the tops with milk or egg wash and sprinkle with caster sugar.
    • place on the hot baking trays in the oven and immediately turn the oven down to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 (fan 180°C).
    • cook for 12 – 15 minutes, until lightly golden brown.
    • leave to cool in the tin and lightly dust with some icing sugar.

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.